"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel
nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest
lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Donald
Trump’s sprawling web of business ties around the world would make him
the most conflicted president in American history, with virtually no
foreign policy decision untainted by Trump Organization interests,
according to a bombshell Newsweek cover story published online Wednesday.

As
investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald details in the story, which is
based on confidential interviews with executives, foreign politics,
global financiers, and even criminals, the GOP nominee personally tried
to woo Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, did business with the son of an
Azerbaijan official who is accused of laundering money for the Iranian
military, and holds the trademark for possible Trump branded projects in
Vladimir Putin’s Russia.One of Trump’s most troubling business entanglements is in Turkey, a
critical U.S. ally in the fight against ISIL in the Middle East. After
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presided over a 2012
ribbon-cutting dedication of a Trump property in Istanbul, relations
between him and the real estate mogul have frayed, with the president
speaking out against Trump’s derogatory remarks about Muslims. The
politically influential Dogan family, whose Dogan Group was Trump’s
Turkish business partner on the project, is embroiled in criminal
allegations, with its owner facing charges that he engaged in a
fuel-smuggling scheme.Eichewald writes:

The Trump family rakes in untold millions of dollars
from the Trump Organization every year. Much of that comes from deals
with international financiers and developers, many of whom have been
tied to controversial and even illegal activities. None of Trump’s
overseas contractual business relationships examined by Newsweek were
revealed in his campaign’s financial filings with the Federal Election
Commission, nor was the amount paid to him by his foreign partners.

It would also be a monumental task for Trump to untangle these conflicts of interest, according to the report:

Trump’s business conflicts with America’s national
security interests cannot be resolved so long as he or any member of his
family maintains a financial interest in the Trump Organization during a
Trump administration, or even if they leave open the possibility of
returning to the company later. The Trump Organization cannot be placed
into a blind trust, an arrangement used by many politicians to prevent
them from knowing their financial interests; the Trump family is already
aware of who their overseas partners are and could easily learn about
any new ones.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Donald Trump’s shifting political and business loyalties are laid
bare in a new book that challenges his credentials as a conviction
politician in often lurid detail.Despite a recent campaign focus on letting “Trump be Trump”, the
431-page biography instead charts the career of many Trumps: the
showman, the womaniser, and a business partner who quickly ditches
failing schemes.The book, the first of several expected on Trump, was compiled by a
team of two dozen Washington Post journalists, led by Michael Kranish
and Marc Fisher, during a three-month period earlier this year, in which
they had some 20 hours of interviews with him.

Challenged with evidence that he had changed party affiliation seven
times between 1999 and 2012, the Republican candidate defended his
political flip-flopping as a necessary expediency. “I think it had to do
more with practicality, because if you’re going to run for office, you
would have had to make friends,” he told the authors.

He declined to say whether he had voted for Hillary Clinton, for whom
he once hosted a packed penthouse fundraiser and donated campaign
contributions six times over a decade. “I felt it was an obligation to
get along, including with the Clintons,” he once said, according to the
book titled Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money
and Power.

But the team of reporters also reveal new accounts of business
reversals, including interviews with some of the victims of a collapsed
Florida property scheme who sued after discovering that he had little
responsibility for it other than receiving income for the use of his
name.

Trump also confirms a notorious incident in which unwelcome tenants in
one of his skyscrapers were encouraged to leave by being told they would
have to walk 60 flights to get to work because the elevators had
mysteriously shut down. Yet much of the detail of Trump’s business dealings – from a mortgage
venture described as a “boiler room” to a vitamin sales scheme said to
share similarities with pyramid schemes – may please supporters with
depictions of a man who invariably ends up “winning”. A controversial
clothing line, made mainly in low-wage factories offshore, is said to
have netted Trump $1m with no money down.

The self-proclaimed teetotaler, who doesn’t like shaking hands for
fear of germs, also emerges as a consummate master of media
manipulation.NBC executive Jim Dowd is quoted saying Trump believed the Apprentice
TV show provided him with the opportunity to run for the White House.
“He told me ‘I’ve got the real estate and hotel and golf niche. I’ve got
the name recognition, but I don’t have the love and respect of middle
America.’ Now he did. That was the bridge to the [2016 campaign].”

The book details Trump’s parasitic, and at turns downright bizarre,
relationship with the press. Trump even granted a reporter an in-person
interview at the hospital on the day his daughter Tiffany was born. In
another instance, it appears Trump, pretending to be a spokesman for himself, leaked details of his first divorce from Ivana to People magazine.

Early in his career, he employed a “carrot and stick” approach with
reporters to both garner attention and pre-empt negative press. When
Trump learned a journalist from the Village Voice was interested in
digging into his business dealings, he called the reporter, Jack
Newfield, and later referred to him as a friend. At one point he offered
to help get Newfield an apartment in a more affluent neighborhood. But
Trump also warned him, “I’ve broken more than one writer.”

“For decades, Trump’s daily morning routine included a review of
everything written or said about him in the previous 24 hours. The
clippings were usually culled by Norma Foerderer – for two decades
Trump’s ever-present chief assistant – who also handed her boss a spiral
notebook containing media requests, most of which he would handle
himself,” according to the book. “As his celebrity grew, the daily pile
of Trump related news coverage swelled; still, he diligently tried to
review everything written or said about him.” During the 1980s and early 1990s, Trump routinely made headlines for
his splashy persona and high-stakes investments. The book notes that he
was adored by working-class New Yorkers, especially ones from the outer
boroughs who appreciated his Queens accent, and by immigrants, who saw
him as the epitome of the American dream, excessive but successful. Reporters became accustomed to speaking to Trump directly. On occasion, the book said, it appeared he would masquerade
as a spokesman for the organization under the name “John Miller” or
“John Barron”. He even used “The Baron” as a codename when leaving
messages for Marla Maples while he was still married to Ivana Trump.
Barron is also the name of his youngest son with his current wife,
Melania Trump. Incidentally, when he first met Melania, he allegedly
asked for her phone number even though he was on a date with another
woman at the time.

The book also describes how Trump was devastated by the deaths of his
casino executives, Stephen Hyde, Mark Grossinger Etess, and Jonathan
Benanav in 1989. The four attended a meeting at Trump Tower in New York
that ran longer than expected. Having missed their flight home, the men
boarded another helicopter back to Atlantic City. A scrape on the rotor
blades caused the helicopter to split apart in mid-air.Trump learned of the crash first, and called the three families to
inform them, according to the book. In an interview with the Post, Trump
compared that experience to when the military informs “soldiers’
families when they’re gone”. Later Trump would claim that he was
supposed to be on the helicopter and changed his mind at the last
minute. “It was, like, a fifty-fifty deal,” he told CNN, though this account has been disputed.

The book describes how Trump adopted the ethos of Roy Cohn, a fearsome New York lawyer and former consigliere to Senator Joseph McCarthy,
who represented the builder for 13 years: “All press is good press”.
Cohn, who died of Aids in 1986, weeks after being disbarred, is credited
with inviting Trump into New York’s influential social and political
circles that proved useful as he grew his business in the city.

Trump later explained his philosophy to Elizabeth Jarosz, a
second-season contestant who later became a brand strategy consultant.
“All publicity is good publicity … When people get tired of you is when
you do more publicity, because that’s when you become an icon,” she
recalled.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Cleveland (CNN)The
Republican Party will declare internet pornography a "public health
crisis" under an amendment added to the draft party platform Monday at
preliminary meetings in Cleveland.

North
Carolina delegate Mary Frances Forrester successfully proposed the
amendment in a subcommittee of the platform committee Monday morning.

"The
internet must not become a safe haven for predators," the provision
states. "Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children,
has become a public health crisis that is destroying the life of
millions. We encourage states to continue to fight this public menace
and pledge our commitment to children's safety and well-being. We
applaud the social networking sites that bar sex offenders from
participation. We urge energetic prosecution of child pornography which
closely linked to human trafficking."

The amendment passed with little debate.

The
debates over the platform on Monday touched on a variety of topics,
from endangered species to medical marijuana to abortion and
international trade.

The
full committee continues its deliberations on the platform into Tuesday
and will send a full draft to the floor of the convention next week.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest tore into House Republicans'
Benghazi committee report on Tuesday, sarcastically questioning whether
the Republican National Committee counted the investigation as a
campaign contribution.

"Is the RNC going to disclose the in-kind contribution that they
received from House Republicans today?” Earnest said at his daily media
briefing.Earnest went on to note that House Republicans spent $7 million
taxpayer dollars on their investigation, which he said was intended to
"tear down Secretary Clinton's poll numbers."Clinton herself responded to the report
earlier in the day, saying it was "time to move on." House Republicans
determined in their report that President Obama's administration acted
too slowly in response to the attacks."The variety of conspiracy theories that have been flowering on the
Republican side of the aisle are politically motivated fantasies,"
Earnest said.

Update: This post has been updated.
A witness at a congressional hearing claimed Tuesday that Congress' two
Muslim members spoke at a convention with ties to the Muslim
Brotherhood.The allegations came during a Senate subcommittee hearing titled
"Willful Blindness: Consequences of Agency Efforts to Deemphasize
Radical Islam in Combating Terrorism" sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).The witness, Chris Gaubatz, alleged that Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN)
and André Carson (D-IN) participated in a 2008 convention held by the
Islamic Society of North America, which Gaubatz labeled as a "Muslim
Brotherhood event."

“I attended a convention in Columbus, Ohio, in 2008, organized by
Muslim Brotherhood group, ISNA, and both the Department of Homeland
Security, and the Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons had
recruitment and outreach booths,” Gaubatz said. “Both Congressman Keith
Ellison and Andre Carson spoke at the Muslim Brotherhood event.”Ellison's office confirmed to the Huffington Post that
he indeed attend the 2008 convention and other conventions organized by
ISNA, while Carson's office did not return Huffington Post's request
for comment. Huffington Post pointed out that President Obama has
addressed the group's convention in 2015, via a video message. ISNA,
meanwhile, has denied any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood,
according to the Huffington Post.Gaubatz was described as a "National Security Consultant" in the
hearing's witness list, and has long accused Islamic advocacy groups of
being front groups to influence U.S. national security policy. He once posed as an intern
at the Muslim civil rights group Council on American Islamic Relations,
where he collected documents for a 2009 book co-authored by his father,
"Muslim Mafia."He was testifying in front of the the Subcommittee on Oversight,
Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, of which Cruz is the
chairman.Later in the hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) praised Ellison for his "great patriotism."Another witness, Zuhdi Jasser -- the founder of American Islamic
Forum for Democracy and “A Battle for the Soul of Islam” -- bashed
President Obama for speaking at a Baltimore mosque in February.“Here’s a mosque that had gender apartheid as a policy within its
mosque. It had a sermon which was a screed against homosexuals a year
prior, that our Muslim reform movement publicized and said, ‘Look at it.
Why is he going to this mosque?’” Jasser said. “It appeared to be a
bigotry of low expectations that somehow we don't hold Muslims
accountable to the same values we do everybody else in the West and in
this country.”Jasser then referenced a speech Obama gave at the 2015 National
Prayer Breakfast, in which the President compared concerns about Islam
and terrorism today to Christianity and the Crusades.“We'll give lectures to Christians, Jews and others, but when it
comes to muslims, the mosque he chooses as a backdrop is in the 13th
century when it comes to women's rights, gay rights and other rights.”

Monday, June 20, 2016

In a speech delivered at “Herzliya” conference yesterday , Halevy
explicitly said “Israel” does not want the situation in Syria to end
with the defeat of ISIS “, the Israeli NRG site reported.“Withdrawal of the super powers from the region and letting Israel
alone in front of Hezbollah and Iran that possess good abilities Will
make “Israel” in a hard position” . Therefore, we’ve to do all we can so
as not finding ourselves in such situation”, the Israeli chief
intelligence added.

Supporters of a growing anti-Donald Trump movement announced plans
Sunday to raise money for staff and a possible legal defense fund as
they asked new recruits to help spread the word with less than a month
until the Republican National Convention.

Having
started with just a few dozen delegates, organizers also said Sunday
that they now count several hundred delegates and alternates as part of
their campaign.

"As we carefully consider not only the
presidential nominee but the rules of the convention, the platform of
the Republican Party and the vice presidential nominee, remember that
this is true reality TV – it is not entertainment," Regina Thomson,
co-founder of the group now calling itself "Free the Delegates," said
Sunday night.The group is led by convention delegates seeking to
block Trump at the GOP convention next month in Cleveland by changing
party rules so that they can vote however they want -- instead of in
line with the results of state caucuses and primaries. It is quickly
emerging as the most organized effort to stop Trump and coincides with
his declining poll numbers.Concerned
Republicans also are increasingly alarmed by Trump's rhetoric,
including his racial attacks on a federal judge, a fresh call made
Sunday to begin profiling Muslim Americans, and his support for changing
the nation’s gun laws in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Orlando.

But Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and other
party leaders believe that convention delegates are bound to the results
of the caucuses and primaries held over the course of the year. An RNC
spokesman on Friday dismissed plans to undermine Trump, first reported by The Washington Post, as "silly" and "nothing more than a media creation and a series of tweets."Trump
called attempts to strip of the party nomination "totally illegal but
also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I
am saying." On Saturday, he accused former opponents Jeb Bush and Sen.
Ted Cruz (Tex.) of trying to undermine his candidacy.But in a
conference call Sunday night, leaders of Free the Delegates repeatedly
insisted that they are not working on behalf of any of Trump's former
opponents. They also lashed out at top party leaders."Mr.
Priebus needs to understand that leadership has not answered the call of
the most important people in the Republican Party and that’s the
conservatives. We have always been there, we’ve endured a lot of one-way
loyalty," said Chris Eckstrom, a Dallas-based businessman and founder
of Courageous Conservative PAC, an organization that once supported
Cruz's campaign but is now backing the new movement."It’s now
our time and our duty to say that this is a conservative platform in the
Republican Party and we simply will not abandon it," Eckstrom added.Thomson,
Eckstrom and others addressed at least 1,000 Republicans nationwide who
participated in the call, organizers said. The Washington Post obtained
call-in information from a caller, but there was no way to
independently verify how many people participated.Also on the
call was Steve Lonegan, a Republican consultant from New Jersey who is
advising the campaign on fundraising and media outreach. During the
call, Lonegan asked participants to donate to Eckstrom's PAC,
reiterating that both men are volunteering their time and would spend
the PAC money only to help track down like-minded delegates, hiring
staff to assist the campaign while in Cleveland and to help any
delegates who may face threats or pressure.Delegates in several
states have said they are under pressure not to join anti-Trump groups.
In North Carolina, some have proposed fining delegates or kicking them
out of the party if they vote against Trump. In other states, party
leaders have threatened to strip delegates of their credentials if they
buck primary results and against Trump, said delegates who have
contacted The Post. Some who have reached out have spoken on the
condition of anonymity, saying that spouses are fearful of physical
threats if they speak out publicly about their plans.Kendal
Unruh, one of the group's founders, said that she is planning to propose
adding the "conscience clause" to the convention's rules so that there
is no confusion about what delegates can do. While some Republicans
believe that they already can vote their conscience, Unruh said that
adding the rule would end any dispute."I’m so convinced that it’s going to pass with a majority," she said.Unruh
and other delegates were pleased to hear House Speaker Paul D. Ryan
(R-Wis.) tell NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that it's "not my place
to decide" whether delegates should be unbound at the convention."It
is not my job to tell delegates what to do, what not to do, or to weigh
in on things like that. They write the rules. They make their
decisions," Ryan told NBC."Paul Ryan signed our permission slip," Unruh said in response. Talmage Pearce, a GOP delegate from Arizona's Fifth Congressional District, said that Ryan "spoke wisely and empathetically" in his interview.
"Regarding Trump, I cannot in good conscience vote for him," Pearce
said in an email. "The deceit, bullying, insulting, blackmailing, and
liberal views all make it impossible for me to cast him my endorsement.
Trump would need to change significantly and convince myself and
millions of other conservatives across the country that he has changed
in order to earn our votes."A delegate from Colorado
supporting the campaign said that "we will not put our delegates in an
ethical dilemma" if they are unbound. "We live in America. The land of
the free. As delegates, we should be free to vote our conscience."The
delegate spoke by email and on the condition of anonymity because he
said he's already being harassed by other Republicans and is concerned
for his safety.

Cecil Stinemetz, a delegate from Iowa, participated in Sunday night's
call. Angered by intimidation tactics used by one of his state party's
leaders, he forwarded an email he received on Friday from Steve
Scheffler, who holds one of Iowa's seats on the Republican National
Committee and is a leader of the Iowa Christian Alliance."Stop
this madness Cecil!!" Scheffler wrote. "All the other candidates have
either folded their campaigns or suspended them. You are hurting Iowa!
Can't you behave yourself? You are an embarrassment! The binding for
Iowa is what it is and your trying to make a name for yourself in the
press is disgusting! Christians don't behave this way!"Scheffler declined to comment when contacted for a response about the exchange, but didn't deny that he wrote the email."I'm not sure I've ever been this disappointed," Stinemetz said of the message."My
whole adult life I have been a loyal Republican. But this whole
experience has really opened my eyes to what some folks I previously
thought were nuts were warning us about," he added. "If you want to know
how it's possible for someone like Donald Trump to rise this far in our
party, it's because we have leaders like this."

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Law360, New York (June 10, 2016, 10:14 PM ET) -- A New York judge on Friday set a September hearing to decide civil
contempt claims against a pair of lawyers who are accused of revealing
the identity of a government cooperator who has been linked to
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, conduct that may result in
criminal prosecution.
The strange, secretive case involves allegations that attorneys Richard
Lerner and Frederick Oberlander violated court orders by disclosing the
identity of real estate developer Felix Sater as a government
cooperating witness to the press and in court filings.

According to court documents, the lawyers are accused of disclosing a
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act conviction of
Sater's, also referred to in court records as John Doe, as well as his
cooperation with the Department of Justice in the prosecution of
purported Mafia and Russian organized crime figures, information that
had been ordered to be sealed.

Sater, a former member of Trump SoHo developer Bayrock Group LLC, sued
for civil contempt, and U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan on Friday set a
fall date for an evidentiary proceeding to decide the contempt
allegations.

Judge Cogan has also taken the unusual step of referring the matter to
New York federal prosecutors for consideration on whether criminal
contempt of court charges should be brought against Lerner and
Oberlander.

The judge on Friday noted that the office of the U.S. Attorney for the
Northern District of New York informed him that it cannot advise him on
where it stands regarding the conclusion of the criminal investigation.

Sater was convicted in 1998 of racketeering for a purported securities
fraud scheme, but his conviction remained sealed for years because he
became an informant for the government. It was during the time his
conviction was sealed that Bayrock worked on real estate projects tied
to Trump, according to court documents.

For his part, Lerner has claimed
that Sater used the concealment of his conviction to execute a fraud on
banks, investors and others by persuading them to sink nearly a billion
dollars to finance Trump-branded projects. He maintains the fraud took
place with the knowledge and facilitation of former U.S. Attorney for
the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch, now the U.S. attorney
general.

A separate lawsuit,
originally filed by a Oberlander on a client's behalf, claims Bayrock
entities and principals collaborated with Trump on hotel projects while
concealing that Sater had been convicted of a felony related to
organized crime and was allegedly skimming money.

In a statement provided to Law360 by Sater’s attorney, Robert S. Wolf of Moses & Singer LLP, he called Lerner and Oberlander “rouge lawyers” who have violated numerous district court and Second Circuit orders.

“As I stated on the record, our client seeks to have Oberlander and
Lerner indicted by the government and prosecuted for their criminal
contempt,” Wolf said. “Additionally, we will pursue all maximum
sanctions including financial sanctions to recover the exorbitant legal
costs incurred as a result of their outrageous and life threatening
misconduct by Oberlander and Lerner identified in these proceedings.”

An attorney for Oberlander, Jeffrey C. Hoffman of Blank Rome LLP,
said the contempt allegations are not based on sworn statement of
facts, as there are no orders with unambiguous decretal language.

"In fact as to some of the alleged orders they do not exist but are
'presumed' to exist," Hoffman said, adding that it was Sater and his
team that publicly filed sealed court documents in Israel, which
resulted in their dissemination to the media.

In a joint statement, Oberlander and Lerner called the contempt
proceedings fraudulent, and said they are being charged with contempt
for writing an editorial critical of Lynch and for making a filing a U.S. Supreme Court petition, with a redacted version for the press.

"The only contempt here is the court’s contempt for half a millennium of
Anglo-American law. Never before has a court thought it could be
contempt to speak freely of matters in the public record. And while Mr.
Sater is allowed to charge us with contempt for ‘revealing’ his 1998
RICO conviction in media interviews, no one seems to care that he
himself has filed court papers claiming his conviction has been public
since March 2000," they said.

Sunday, June 05, 2016

WASHINGTON -- Republican Texas Attorney General Ken
Paxton moved to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered
in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons.Paxton's
office issued a cease and desist letter to former Deputy Chief of
Consumer Protection John Owens after he made public copies of a 14-page
internal summary of the state's case against Donald Trump for scamming millions from students of his now-defunct real estate seminar.Owens, now retired, said his team had built a solid case against the
now-presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but was told to drop it
after Trump's company agreed to cease operations in Texas.The
former state regulator told The Associated Press on Friday that decision
was highly unusual and left the bilked students on their own to attempt
to recover their tuition money from the celebrity businessman.

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate.A federal judge overseeing one of the class action suits unsealed documents in the case earlier this week, then ordered some of those records to be withdrawn from public view, saying they had "mistakenly" been released. Trump has personally attacked U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel as "a hater of Donald Trump," claiming he is biased against Trump because of his Hispanic heritage."We're in front of a very hostile judge," Trump told a crowd in San
Diego on May 27. "The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, federal
judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself because he's given us ruling
after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative.""What
happens is the judge, who happens to be -- we believe -- Mexican. Which
is great. I think that's fine," he said. "You know what? I think the
Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these
jobs, OK?"

Curiel was born in East Chicago, Indiana. Curiel's
parents, however, are Mexican, according to a 2002 New York Times report
of the judge's work in the Southern District of California's narcotics
enforcement division.Despite the lawsuits, the presumptive GOP nominee said Thursday he plans to reopen Trump University once the legal cases are resolved.

As CBS News reported in September,
Trump University closed not because of litigation, but because students
were not signing up for its Gold elite mentoring program that cost
$35,000. The university, as a result, could no longer afford to fulfill
its commitments to the students who had already paid.

A June 2010 memo from Trump University said the program was facing
"significant operations risk" and it closed a month later. A former
employee told CBS News that the program was "run into the ground."According to the documents provided by Owens,
his team sought to sue Trump, his company and several business
associates to help recover more than $2.6 million students spent on
seminars and materials, plus another $2.8 million in penalties and fees.Owens said he was so surprised at the order to stand down he made a copy of the case file and took it home.

"It
had to be political in my mind because Donald Trump was treated
differently than any other similarly situated scam artist in the 16
years I was at the consumer protection office," said Owens, who lives in
Houston.Owens' boss at the time was then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is now the state's GOP governor.

The Associated Press first reported Thursday that Trump gave donations
totaling $35,000 to Abbott's gubernatorial campaign three years after
his office closed the Trump U case. Several Texas media outlets then
reported Owens' accusation that the probe was dropped for political
reasons.

Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch said Friday that the governor had played
no role in ending the case against Trump, a decision he said was made
farther down the chain of command."The Texas Attorney General's
office investigated Trump U, and its demands were met - Trump U was
forced out of Texas and consumers were protected," Hirsch said. "It's
absurd to suggest any connection between a case that has been closed and
a donation to Governor Abbott three years later."

Paxton issued a
media release about the cease and desist later Friday, saying Owens had
divulged "confidential and privileged information."Owens first learned about the state's action against him on Friday afternoon when contacted by the AP for response.

"I
have done nothing illegal or unethical," said Owens, a lawyer. "I think
the information I provided to the press was important and needed to be
shared with the public."

Paxton faces his own legal trouble. He was indicted last year on
three felony fraud charges alleging that he persuaded people to invest
in a North Texas tech startup while failing to disclose that he hadn't
invested himself but was being paid by the company in stock. Paxton has
remained in office while appealing the charges.

Texas was not the only GOP-led state to shy away from suing Trump.Florida
Attorney General Pam Bondi briefly considered joining a multi-state
suit against Trump U. Three days after Bondi's spokeswoman was quoted in
local media reports as saying her office was investigating, Trump's
family foundation made a $25,000 contribution to a political fundraising
committee supporting Bondi's re-election campaign.Bondi, a Republican, soon dropped her investigation, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.

In
New York, meanwhile, Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued
Trump over what he called a "straight-up fraud." That case, along with
several class-action lawsuits filed by former Trump students, is still
ongoing.

Saturday, June 04, 2016

Mike Judge and Etan Cohen, the director and writer behind the 2006 cult comedy Idiocracy, have reteamed to pen a series of anti-Donald Trump campaign ads starring the film's wrestler-turned-president, played by Terry Crews.

The ads were fueled by a tweet Cohen sent as Trump began dominating the GOP ticket.
"I never expected #idiocracy to become a documentary so soon," Cohen
wrote in February, referencing the 2006 film that featured a seemingly
unbelievable distant future where society was dumbed down to the point
of idiocy thanks to television and pop culture.

Following Cohen's tweet, which was retweeted nearly 4,000 times,
Cohen reached out to Judge about crafting campaign ads satirizing Trump,
the screenwriter told Buzzfeed."We just thought it would take much, much longer to get to this
point," Cohen said.

"Obviously, when writing the movie, we knew that
that was true about TV and movies and pop culture. But it was a crazy
joke to think that it could be extrapolated to politics. It seems to be
happening really rapidly."

The one hold-up before these bite-size follow-ups to Idiocracy
can get in front of a camera: Judge and Cohen are waiting for Fox, the
film's right holder, to give the go-ahead for Crews to reprise his role.

"The most dangerous contrast to Trump is that Camacho actually
realizes he needs advice from other people, and knows that he’s not the
smartest guy in the room," Cohen said, adding that he'd vote for Camacho
over Trump because Crews' character is "not racist."

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

USA TODAY analysis finds 3,500 legal actions by and against Trump, fighting everyone from the government to the vodka makers

Donald Trump is a fighter, famous for legal skirmishes over
everything from his golf courses to his tax bills to Trump
University. But until now, it hasn’t been clear precisely how litigious
he is and what that might portend for a Trump presidency.An
exclusive USA TODAY analysis of legal filings across the United States
finds that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his
businesses have been involved in at least 3,500 legal actions in federal
and state courts during the past three decades. They range from
skirmishes with casino patrons to million-dollar real estate suits to
personal defamation lawsuits.

The sheer volume of lawsuits is
unprecedented for a presidential nominee. No candidate of a major party
has had anything approaching the number of Trump’s courtroom
entanglements.

Just since he announced his candidacy a year ago,
at least 70 new cases have been filed, about evenly divided between
lawsuits filed by him and his companies and those filed against them.
And the records review found at least 50 civil lawsuits remain open even
as he moves toward claiming the nomination at the Republican National
Convention in Cleveland in seven weeks. On Tuesday, court documents were
released in one of the most dramatic current cases, filed in
California by former students accusing Trump University of fraudulent
and misleading behavior.

The legal actions provide clues to the
leadership style the billionaire businessman would bring to bear as
commander in chief. He sometimes responds to even small disputes with
overwhelming legal force. He doesn’t hesitate to deploy his wealth and
legal firepower against adversaries with limited resources, such as
homeowners. He sometimes refuses to pay real estate brokers, lawyers and
other vendors.

As he campaigns, Trump often touts his skills as a
negotiator. The analysis shows that lawsuits are one of his primary
negotiating tools. He turns to litigation to distance himself from
failing projects that relied on the Trump brand to secure
investments. As USA TODAY previously reported, he also uses the legal
system to haggle over his property tax bills. His companies have been
involved in more than 100 tax disputes, and the New York State
Department of Finance has obtained liens on Trump properties for unpaid
tax bills at least three dozen times.And despite his boasts on the campaign trail that he “never” settles
lawsuits, for fear of encouraging more, he and his businesses have
settled with plaintiffs in at least 100 cases reviewed by USA TODAY.
Most involve people who say they were physically injured at Trump
properties, with settlements that range as high as hundreds of thousands
of dollars.Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump
Organization, said in an interview that the number and tenor of the
court cases is the “cost of doing business” and on par with other
companies of a similar size. "I think we have far less litigation of
companies of our size," he said.

However, even by those measures,
the number of cases in which Trump is involved is extraordinary. For
comparison, USA TODAY analyzed the legal involvement for five top
real-estate business executives: Edward DeBartolo, shopping-center
developer and former San Francisco 49ers owner; Donald Bren, Irvine
Company chairman and owner; Stephen Ross, Time Warner Center developer;
Sam Zell, Chicago real-estate magnate; and Larry Silverstein, a New York
developer famous for his involvement in the World Trade Center
properties.

To maintain an apples-to-apples comparison, only
actions that used the developers' names were included. The analysis
found Trump has been involved in more legal skirmishes than all five of
the others — combined.

The
USA TODAY analysis included an examination of legal actions for and
against Trump and the more than 500 businesses he lists on the personal
financial disclosure he filed with the Federal Election Commission. USA
TODAY also reviewed five depositions in which Trump sat for 22 hours of
sworn testimony. This report is based on those legal filings as well as
interviews with dozens of his legal adversaries.

A handful of the
ongoing cases involve local or state government entities, with the
possibility of personal legal disputes between the president of the
United States and other branches of government if Trump is elected. For
instance, the Trump team has filed a lawsuit seeking a state ethics
investigation of the New York attorney general. The suit was filed in
response to an ongoing fraud investigation into Trump University by the
attorney general, an elected state official.

And at a campaign rally in San Diego last Friday, Trump railed
against a federal judge overseeing an ongoing lawsuit against Trump
University. Trump said Judge Gonzalo Curiel "happens to be, we believe
Mexican," and called him a "hater of Donald Trump" who "railroaded" him.
Born in Indiana, Curiel was appointed to the federal bench by President
Obama. The judge on Tuesday unsealed hundreds of pages of documents in
the case.The trial is set for November — just after Election Day.

Trump’s
history of legal actions provides clues about his style as a leader and
manager. While he is quick to take credit for anything associated with
his name, he is just as quick to distance himself from failures and to
place responsibility on others. In one lawsuit — filed against him by
condo owners who wanted their money back for a Fort Lauderdale condo
that was never built — he testified in a sworn deposition: “Well, the
word ‘developing,’ it doesn't mean that we're the developers.”

At times, he and his companies refuse to pay even relatively small
bills. An engineering firm and a law firm are among several who filed
suits against Trump companies saying they weren't paid for their
work. In a 2011 deposition tied to a dispute over his deal with Van
Heusen menswear, he said he abruptly decided not to sign a check to a
firm that helped broker the deal, after 11 consecutive quarterly
payments, because "I don't feel that these people did very much, if
anything, with respect to this deal.”

The number of lawsuits
raises questions about potential conflicts and complications if Trump
does win the White House. Dozens of cases remain unresolved, about half
in which he is the plaintiff. It raises the possibility of individuals
being sued by the president of the United States, or suing him, in
non-governmental disputes.

Under the law, Trump wouldn’t get
special advantages as the plaintiff — or protections as a defendant.
Under long-standing conflict-of-interest rules, as a plaintiff he
couldn’t improperly benefit from governmental knowledge. He also
wouldn’t get immunity from civil litigation that stemmed from events
prior to taking office.

Together, the lawsuits help address this question: How would Trump’s
record in business translate into leading the most powerful government
on the globe — a task that involves managing a $4 trillion annual
budget, overseeing 1.8 million civilian federal employees and commanding
the most powerful armed forces in the world?

While leaders who
had business careers sometimes have been elected to the White House —
oilmen George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, for instance, and mining
engineer Herbert Hoover — the jobs have some fundamental differences,
political scientists and presidential historians say. A president can't
rule by fiat, as some CEOs do. And getting things done in government
often involves building coalitions among legislators and foreign leaders
who have their own priorities and agendas.

“He’s operating as his
own boss and a CEO-on-steroids mentality, where you snap a finger and
things get done,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, who has
written biographies of Franklin Roosevelt and Teddy Roosevelt and edited
Ronald Reagan’s diaries. “But a lot of good governance is on learning
how to build proper coalitions and how to have patience with the glacial
pace of government, and you’re forced to abide by laws at all times. "

Brinkley
sees "a lot of warning signs about having someone of Trump’s
temperament and professional disposition being the commander-in-chief.”..............

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Take America back from those who have stolen it.
Protect America from those who want to destroy it.
Restore the principles that these usurpers betrayed.

These are the messages that have defined the GOP presidential race.
They have been used for the past eight years to justify obstruction of
the Obama administration, and are now being used to paint the democratic
candidates as dangerous.
In the late stages of the GOP primary as the rhetoric became
increasingly xenophobic, they were applied to increasingly broad swaths
of the American population as well.Years of constant repetition by members of the GOP have given them an
appearance of legitimacy, now strengthened by Donald Trump’s victory in
the GOP primary contest and the party’s growing embrace of him as their
standard-bearer.Unfortunately, the Republican Party isn’t alone in using these messages.Right-wing extremist groups use them as well, and to very specific
ends: to define the conditions under which antigovernment violence
becomes legitimate in their worldview.I have spent nearly 15 years studying how the risk of violence grows
within societies around the world, and running programs designed to stem
the tide. I have seen rhetoric like this used to mobilize violence in
countries like Iraq and Kenya.This same dynamic, I argue, is taking shape within American society
now. If it continues, it represents a greater threat than anything we
face from terrorist groups outside our own borders.

Turning a blind eye

Militia men surrounding the ranch of Cliven Bundy, 2014.REUTERS/Mike BlakeFear and anger make for strong motivation.The GOP has spent many years mobilizing both (sometimes tacitly and sometimes actively),
in the form of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, racist and antigovernment
sentiment. This strategy has secured them votes from the white,
Christian, male and ideologically extreme demographic needed to offset the party’s growing distance from an increasingly diverse and progressive American society.This has typically been done in code, a practice that’s come to be known as “dog whistle politics” – but this election has brought it into the open.Few have emerged unscathed. For months, Republican candidates traded shots claiming that each other, liberals,
immigrants and Black Lives Matter protesters – to name a few – are to
blame for the picture they’ve painted of a degraded America that’s
fallen into hostile hands.Even the GOP itself has fallen into the cross-hairs. The divide
between party leadership and the population it claims to represent is
growing, and becoming septic. Trump has built his candidacy on the idea
that America is sick, broken and misled, and “making it great again”
depends on taking it back and cutting out the cancer.His campaign rhetoric has a common thread with that of extremists. It
emphasizes betrayal and theft. It tells Americans that things are bad
because of it, and then points a finger and places blame.

The patriot paradox

Every violent group in history describes its own violence as the
legitimate response to a threat that was forced on them. Groups survive
in the long term when that description makes sense to enough of the
population to buy them tolerance and safe space to operate, plan and
grow. That’s true of terrorism and violent extremism – but because
protesters and supporters alike view each other as enemies of the state
and therefore legitimate targets, it also helps to explain the growing
physical violence at Trump rallies. It should also provide a warning for what that as-yet-limited violence could grow into.For examples, look at the websites of American extremist groups. Their reasoning usually orbits around the belief that they are defending the Constitution, stopping the theft of the political process from the people of the United States and resisting takeover by hostile powers.
As such, they don’t consider themselves extremist at all, but defenders
against it. It’s the same language we saw in 2014 at the Bundy Ranch standoff, and again in 2015 at the Malheur occupation.The names these groups take – “Patriot Movement,” “Freemen,” “Sovereign Citizens“
– serve to legitimize them in American eyes, drawing on the narrative
that true Americans are not only able – but expected – to throw off
oppression themselves. Typically, each group insists it’s not violent –
unless pushed, and then of course it stands ready to respond in kind.Here, of course, is the rub. The constantly repeated themes of theft
and betrayal from the GOP suggest to the patriot militias and to
supporters who feel angry and alienated that the push has already
happened. Trump has on many occasions claimed that America is “lost”
to the American people. Given his hostility against immigrants and
Black Lives Matter protesters and short-lived nomination of a white
nationalist as a delegate in California, it seems clear he means white Americans. The “birther” argument, which Trump supported
and other GOP officials failed to reject, at its heart is an argument
that President Obama is the foreign agent that the patriot movement
feared. Ted Cruz often repeated this idea that the nation is under
threat of destruction and that the Obama government is law-breaking and unconstitutional.Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh. McVeigh was executed after being sentenced to death for the
bombing of a federal building that took 168 lives.ReutersWe’ve seen the message from across the GOP that Hillary Clinton is in thrall of elite interests
that stand opposed to those of everyday Americans. As for Sanders’
self-embraced “socialist” label, it has stood in for alien since before
the Cold War.Recent years and the 2016 race aren’t the first time we’ve heard this
kind of language from Americans within the patriot movement.The following words were spoken by Timothy McVeigh, in an interview explaining why he destroyed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.

Those who betray or subvert the Constitution are guilty
of sedition and/or treason, are domestic enemies and should and will be
punished accordingly. It also stands to reason that anyone who
sympathizes with the enemy or gives aid or comfort to said enemy is
likewise guilty. I have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution
against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I will.

David Lane, white supremacist, founder of The Order and convicted murderer, phrased the rationale for his violence thus:

cover-ups in the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam
affair made it apparent that powers alien to America’s claimed role were
running things.

We could rewrite Lane’s and McVeigh’s words alike using Trump’s birther argument or Ted Cruz’s accusation of elites
without significantly changing the meaning. Indeed, although the United
States remains fixed on foreign groups such as ISIS and al-Qaida when
it defines terrorism, domestic violence already poses an equal or even greater threat.
The foreign groups can certainly kill, but they have no power to divide
our society; that additional and deeper threat is only our own.

The threat from inside

Consider this: individual acts of violence linked to racism and extremist politics are on the increase. The Washington Post reported
in February 2015 that the number of Muslims killed in hate crimes is,
on average, five times higher post-9/11 than before the attacks.
Politics is increasingly divisive, and anger is the defining characteristic of American society.The blame for these rifts and the likely consequences neither begin
nor end with Donald Trump. He simply used an existing trend for his own
gain. His praise of violence and embrace of racism and political extremism, however, goes past even what the GOP has already made commonplace.Mainstream GOP rebuttals were too little too late. Paul Ryan rebuked Trump’s belated disavowal of David Duke, but the act rang hollow because the Washington Post reported that some of Cruz’s advisers were radically anti-Muslim conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, Pamela Geller, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and a host of other conservative commentators continue pandering to fear, prejudice, theft and betrayal unchallenged.In an age defined by the fear of terrorism, “taking America back from
people who betrayed her security” has real power at the polls, as Trump
can attest. But this strategy for winning elections isn’t just
divisive. It’s creating a risk of violence that has already outgrown the
threat it’s supposed to be a shield against.Trump’s emergence as the GOP candidate has added fuel to the fire,
especially while the GOP dithers over whether or not to embrace him and
his message. Trump himself is unlikely to stop or be convinced of the
effect he’s really having on American security. It’s left to the GOP to
decide whether American security or winning an election is more
important to them.David Alpher, Adjunct Professor at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason UniversityThis article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Monday, May 30, 2016

When Donald Trump publicly floated the idea of
running for president in 1999, his ex-wife Marla Maples made it clear
she would spill the beans on her ex-husband if he were to make it to the
general election.

“If he is really serious about being president and runs in the general election next year, I will not be silent,” Maples told London Telegraph. “I will feel it is my duty as an American citizen to tell the people what he is really like.”

The reaction from Trump and his attorney was swift and brutal. They
launched a full-court effort in the press to discredit Maples and
withheld an alimony payment to “send a message.” The episode illustrates
how Trump uses character assassination and threats to quash any
opposition. Maples has largely remained silent on Trump’s 2016
candidacy. “She’s pretty upset that she hasn’t been in the limelight,” Trump
told reporters about Maples, according to the Associated Press. “But she
got a little limelight today. I guess she wants her day in the sun.”“It’s too bad the venom that she’s got, and I thought I was very nice
to her,” Trump said of Maples to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. “I’ve taken
good care of her. But she’s got a lot of venom and it’s too bad. And
it’s just not becoming of her, but I think she’ll probably be more
responsible.”“I mean you have a confidentiality agreement; you’re not allowed to
talk,” continued Trump. “And she goes out and says, ‘I wouldn’t this, I
wouldn’t that.’ So I say, ‘Why am I paying money to somebody that’s
violated an agreement?’ But we’ll see what happens in the future and if
in the future she continues I guess I`ll have to take very strong
measures.”Trump’s lawyer, Jay Goldberg, was even harsher in his criticism of
Maples, saying, “The 15 minutes of glory ended when she left Donald’s
side. So this is a perfect way to attract publicity. All of her actions
stand for the proposition ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’”Goldberg even took a shot at Maples’ intelligence, saying, “Ms.
Maples didn’t have the capacity to understand, participate, or take a
role in the business world. The public is quite aware of the difference
in capacity, mental capacity, between Marla Maples and Ivana Trump.”Then, Trump, who the Daily News reported was enraged by
Maples’ comments, said he wouldn’t pay the remaining $1.5 million of his
alimony, the balance of the pair’s divorce settlement which was due
that week. “We notified the court that we are not paying and that we are putting
the check in an escrow account,” Trump’s lawyer said to the Daily News.Maples’ lawyer, William Beslow, said the payment was overdue and that
Maples “respects the privacy of her marriage.” They also hit back at
Trump’s team for going after her. “One has to ask, ‘Why now are Mr. Trump’s representatives maligning
Ms. Maples?’ and the truth is clear,” Beslow stated. “They’re hoping to
discredit Ms. Maples, so that if she chooses to say anything in the
future, Mr. Trump can shrug it off as the words of an angry person whose
intelligence should be questioned.”The pair headed to court over the missed payment, but a Manhattan
judge declined to consider Trump’s claims that Maples violated her
prenuptial agreement. “The interview reveals no details about the marriage,” Maples’ lawyer
said. “In all other respects, she is as free as anyone to make
statements about Mr. Trump.Trump’s lawyer then claimed Trump had no intention of withholding alimony, but wanted to send a message. “It was never our intention to withhold the $1.5 million check,” Goldberg said to the New York Post. “Our purpose was to send a message that she was playing close to the fire. That should slow her down.” Goldberg took a parting shot at Maples, who he called a failure. “She’s certainly a woman scorned,” he said. “She’s unhappy because
she was a failure here in New York. She didn’t accomplish anything. She
got no roles, except The Will Rogers Follies, which Donald got for her.”Jennifer Bretan, a spokeswoman for Maples, blasted Trump to the Post.“It’s the sign of real insecurity that Donald Trump feels the need to
authorize his mouthpiece to strike out against an ex-wife who he has
basically been holding financially hostage. ”Meanwhile, Maples’ lawyer, Beslow, took a last shot at Trump. “Ms. Maples left Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump did not leave Ms. Maples,” Beslow said.